10 Movies That Should Never Have Bombed At The Box Office (But Totally Did)

Picture this: It's 2004, Jackie Chan is at the height of his conquest of the West as he's coming off the back of Shanghai Noon, Shanghai Knights, The Tuxedo, and Rush Hour 2 in the previous 4 years. Then, he's cast alongside Steve Coogan, who himself just wrapped his career-defining series of I'm Alan Patridge two years prior, in a new adaptation of Jules Verne's world famous novel Around the World in 80 Days.

That sort of timing with that kind of pedigree of talent has all the ingredients of a sure-fire success. However, it just didn't work out that way. A worldwide gross of $72 million would be quite respectable for most movies, just not attempted blockbusters, and not ones with a questionably high budget of over $100 million; not including marketing costs. That's quite a high number for a comedy-action hybrid, which tend to operate on smaller budgets.

The reviews weren't kind either. It currently sports 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, and likely the panning by the critics was enough to keep people from coming out in the same droves they did for Rush Hour. In retrospect, the comedy was lazy and angled too much on poking fun at cultural differences. But what else can you expect from a movie that has Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a Turkish prince?

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but following this movie Arnold Schwarzenegger retired from acting to go govern California. Jackie Chan return to Hong Kong for a bit, launched his own production company, and took on more dramatic roles. Steve Coogan ended up back on the small screen in the UK, doing bits and bobs in movies here and there. It seemed everyone needed to recover from this box office bomb.